American Idol: "Top Ten Boys Compete" Review

Better than last week, but the women still rule the roost.

After this week of seeing and hearing the boys perform, we're absolutely certain that the contestants must be reading our reviews (or either we have illusions of grandeur from working overtime). First you have Sundance saying about how he doesn't want to perform like crap, which is exactly what we thought of him last week, and then we said Sanjaya should hypnotize the women with his hair 'cause that is all he has going for him, and then this week he has a hat covering it all up. It's a sign!

When compared directly with last week's boys show this episode faired almost infinitely better, though it still didn't hold a candle to the women last week. At least this week we're saying, "Hey, they are pretty good," but that's a far reach from the women who still has us going, "Damn, that girl can sing!"

One thing that was prevalent this episode was the continued homophobia that seemed to stem from last week's offhanded comment of Simon calling Ryan "sweetheart" - look, who cares if two men start talking about clothes and style? There has always been talk about both Ryan and Simon being gay since the beginning of the show, so why the need to really make fun and jokes around it? You are or you aren't and we don't care. The judges should've spent that time jabbing each other to critique the contestants.

As for the contestants:

Phil Stacey was the first to start off the night singing "Ain't Missing You" and he still has that overall great tone to his voice, this week sounding a bit like Michael Bolton at times, but he doesn't do a great job trying to do the soft and low notes.

Jared Cotter sang "Let's Get It On" and he frankly doesn't have enough soul to pull off the legendary Marvin Gaye. He had a few good notes that were pleasant to the ears, but overall he was just average to slightly below average.

AJ Tabaldo sang "Feelin Good" and was one of the best of the whole night. He had a very early Michael Jackson vibe going on that seemed to work for him, and if he hadn't sounded so good, we would've been bored to tears because that song was just so wrong for the competition.

Sanjaya Malakar sang "Steppin' Out" and he continues to shine and by shine we mean totally stinking up the competition with his completely lack of talent. He was good the first time we saw him, but sweet jeebus someone please help this boy pick a song from this generation that kids his age should be singing. Everything he sang was pretty one note, one tone, and one volume. Really boring.

Chris Sligh sang "Trouble" and was quite solid, sounding the best when he let his voice drift into the land of soul, because that was where his voice sounded the best. Like many of the guys this season, his lower registry is his worst as well and is only average sounding.

Nick Pedro sang "Fever" and though he had a better sounding voice than he did last week (mainly because it was an older song he chose to sing). However, it seems those older songs of that same ilk are all he can sing, and so he is a very boring performer to watch unless you are really into that type of music.

Blake Lewis

Blake Lewis sang "Virtual Insanity" and instantly we thought, "But of course, he has a voice that sounds just like Jamiroquai," and that isn't a bad thing either. Blake still continues to have a solid, strong sounding voice, and he knows how to picks songs that show off his voice and yet keep you entertained. We loved the beat boxing, but we'd like to tell him if he is listening to make sure to balance it well. Beat boxing for the sake of beat boxing is going to lose you more votes than gain you, so make sure it fits naturally with the song like it did this week.

Brandon Rogers sang "Time After Time" and frankly nothing worked about the song. He was way out of key (especially in the beginning) and by the time his performance was done, it was easy to see why he was only a background singer (and even then we started to wonder how he even got that job).

Chris Richardson sang "Geek in the Pink," and while he wasn't bad, he wasn't better than Mr. A-Z (aka Jason Mraz) as Randy thought - not by a long, long shot. He still has got a clean voice, but it was occasionally overpowered by the band, completely drowning him out, and the constant bouncing is still annoying as hell.

Sundance Head sang "Mustang Sally" and finally he got back to where he was that first performance during the audition round, and showed that he isn't a one trick pony. Sundance needs to keep finding those soul songs with the high notes, as that is where his voice really shines. Meatloaf would probably be a good pick for him.

Though we aren't blown away by any of the boys performing yet, we do have some favorites like Blake and a few others who we are slowly warming up to. As for how we'd do the rankings this week: